Nigeria’s centenary awards, Sani Abacha and the rest

March 23, 2014 : Mike Ikhariale

Mike Ikhariale

The Centenarian celebrations which was rounded off with the typically indiscriminate and scandalous conferment of largely undeserved “awards” on a motely crowd of persons, dead and alive, has once more, brought to the fore the lingering question as to who really deserves to be acknowledged as a hero in Nigeria.

It was however remarkable that some of the awardees rejected theirs for conscientious and ethical reasons. What I am however not able to comprehend is the apparent tendency of most contributors to the development to predicate the rejections solely on the inclusion of the late dictator, Sani Abacha, who they reasoned didn’t deserve the honour. I believe there should be justice in even accusation. It was not only Abacha’s name that tainted the list. There were many.

We are all living witnesses to several previous incredulous and barefaced mismatches between awards and awardees, majority of which were nothing butironic testimonials of what the beneficiaries are not. It is also a fact that some awards were indecently solicited and even paid for – “arrangee” transactions that are corruptly anchored on delusional self-aggrandisement featuring false claims, exaggerated achievements and outright biographical misrepresentations. With the unfolding awareness in the country these days, Abacha should rank a lot higher than most of them in terms of sincerity of purpose and competence.

Considering the cumulative bad jobs that have been done to governance in Nigeria over the years, it is something of great astonishment that we are still able to assemble such a lengthy list of awardees. A roll call of previous recipients reveals an incestuous distribution of undeserved trophies to serving and past government officials most of who ought to have been in jail or executed for the incalculable damage that they have caused the nation.

If indeed our “heroes past” had minimally done what was expected of them in good faith as statesmen and patriots, the extremely shameful spectacle of last week where thousands of unemployed youths hopelessly trooped to stadia and other places across the country for a few hundred NIS vacancies that led to several deaths would have been avoided given the enormous petrol-dollars that this country earns daily.

Yes, Abacha was really bad, but what sin, be it political or economic did he commit that others in the same position didn’t commit and even surpass? His undoing in the peculiar circumstances of Nigerian history is that he is no more alive to personally pontificate on his own righteousness.

If the dictator did not die, when and how he did, there would have been no special reason to judge him more harshly than the others today. Placed on a scale for judicious and rational assessment, it becomes clear that he was in no way worse than many of the bad leaders that plundered Nigeria. Even though he had to carry the dirty can that stemmed from the irresponsible annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election and the subsequent incarceration of Chief MKO Abiola, the winner of that election, the fact remains that it was not him that annulled that election.

Abacha came into the picture after the demise of the constitutionally dubious contraption of Interim National Government headed by Ernest Shonekan.

While it was not beyond him to do what was right at that time by returning Abiola’s stolen mandate to him, the fact that many of those who ought to have been fighting alongside Chief Abiola to reclaim his mandate had crossed over and indeed had become key appointees in the Abacha’s junta and, for their selfish ends, actively urged the dictator to stay on, didn’t help matters.

His regime was considered as an extension of the evil forces that torpedoed MKO’s victory; the subsequent assassination of Kudirat Abiola and several pro-democracy activists and the mass exodus into exile of threatened citizens completed its characterisation as brutal.

Even then, it could be said that his dictatorship was, at least, honest about evil disposition while others, chameleonic, including those pretending to be democrats, actually did worse: more persons were unlawfully detained or killed and civil liberties were still being denied while official corruption and general dictatorial tendencies escalated in geometric proportions.

Abacha merely did what others were into and are still doing. His seemingly mindless looting was fully in tandem with the deep-seated kleptocratic tradition that was already in place in government. The billions of stolen dollars that he was posthumously found with are far less than what others carted away and are still hauling away excepting that they found the time and opportunity to cover up their tracks or their tracks were never genuinely followed consequent upon the usual soft-landing arrangements between in-coming regimes and out-going ones.

The only reason, for example, why the otherwise fiery Governor Adams Oshiomhole could not go after Gov. Lucky Igbinedion in spite of the latter’s alleged pillaging of Edo State is the fact that a gentleman’s agreement apparently exists which has the effect of turning Oshiomhole’s prying eyes away from the rot that Igbinedion left behind.

There is also the big problem that is represented by our acute shortage of accusatorial memory in Nigeria. It is so easy for us to forget those who made life difficult for us yesterday; we do not have the will to seek for justice from those who wronged us in the course of exercising public powers beyond ineffectual grumblings and “waiting for God”.In any case, the missing billions of dollars that the NNPC, CBN, the Presidency and others are currently playing draught game with makes Abacha’s ugly story sound like christmas carol.

Abacha secretly stole a few billion dollars, while others openly looted tens of billions of the same dollars but, because they are alive, able to buy forgiveness, able to deny and eliminate all traces of the crimes or even deliberately cast doubt over weighty evidences and allegations against them by sending likely whistle-blowers out of the system or driving them to their early graves, nobody says anything.

From what we have seen in this country, there is nothing to make me doubt that if Abacha were to be alive today he would not have been a very prominent member of the Board of Trustees of one of our major political parties and would thus qualify in all respects to be decorated as “elder statesman” and “father of our democracy,” possibly ahead of Babangida, Obasanjo, Buhari and the rest of them.

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Well written, highly articulated piece and unbiased assessment. Without the annulment, there would have been no Abacha! MKO did not die under Abacha’s regime, but after Abacha’s death! OBJ spent four of his eight years term chasing the ghost of Abacha, yet he presided over a worst regime of thieves and murderers. It was not a celebration of National Heroes, but national villains! Names like that of Wole Soyinka and Achebe were merely included to lauder the images of thieves and looters – Thank God, Wole Soyinka saw beneath their evils and infernal strategy.

olisaGod

Bros I am pleased you have vindicated me when I wrote that General Abacha is not that too bad as they portrays him today. God bless you

Sparrow

Let us be sincere with ourselves it is crystal clear this retired past heads of states are not for Nigerians as their heroes cos they ruled with guns and was not voted for. It’s a disgrace and a slap on us Nigerians and generations yet unborn that we have decided to honour them at all,it is only in this country we make thieves chief and send patriots to their early grave, we are all to blame that our children has no role models and see our leaders doing the thing,their emulation gave birth to Area boys,pipeline vandalism , 419, Niger delta militant, boko Haram, allumajiris, Fulani herdsmen slaughtering etc. They have indoctrinated Nigeria into the ” most violent” get it all. Let us not be perturbed with the people leading now, they are part of the decadence of the system.” At least not born in Pluto”.

ade okeke

Maybe the Jews should honor Adolf Hitler. Certainly, he was not the worst.

ade okeke

Even among the Jews, Hitler was not the worst. Maybe he should be honored too, going by your advocacy.

Columnists

"Mr Orubebe, you are former minister of the Federal Republic, you are a statesman in your own right and you must be careful about what you say and about the allegations or accusations that you make and certainly you must be careful about your public conducts."

INEC's Chairman, Attairu Jega cautioning Orubebe over his conduct during the release of the Presidential election results.